Kolkata: The number of passengers who chose Metro Railway in the year 2023-24 increased by 8.82 per cent, as per Metro Railway’s data.
With the rapid expansion of Metro lines in the city, they expect a further increase in passenger count this fiscal.
In 2023-24, Metro Railway recorded a footfall of 19.25 crore compared to 17.69 crore recorded in 2022-23. At present, Metro services are available in Blue Line, Green Line, Purple Line and Orange Line.
Out of these, Blue Line recorded 17.94 crores passenger count in the recently concluded fiscal year. A maximum passenger count of 1.96 crore was registered at Dum Dum Station, followed by Esplanade Station which was 1.32 crore and Rabindra Sadan Station which was 1.24 crore.
The Green Line recorded a 1.22 crore passenger count. Out of this, the maximum passenger count was recorded at Sealdah Station with 49.78 lakh. The second highest passenger count was recorded at Salt Lake Sector V station 21.56 lakh followed by 12.08 lakh passenger count at Karunamoyee station. Kolkata Metro’s Purple Line recorded 1.34 lakh passengers in the last fiscal.
On March 15, commercial services were started on three Metro lines. In Purple Line, the services were further extended from Taratala to Majerhat, the Howrah Maidan to Esplanade section of Green Line was made operational and a section of Orange Line–Kavi Subhash to Hemanta Mukhopadhyay (Ruby) was started. The Metro Railway officials expect that the remaining section of the Green Line–Esplanade to Sealdah–will soon be made operational and with this connectivity, the number of passengers on the Green Line will surpass the Blue Line. “As Metro Railway has started to ply under the river Hooghly and new Corridors are expected to be operational in the new fiscal, it is expected that the passenger count of Metro Railway will further increase in this financial year,” Metro Railway said.